


Harry Potter Book Club

by just_another_classic



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Harry Potter - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-13
Updated: 2016-07-13
Packaged: 2018-07-23 17:24:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7472982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/just_another_classic/pseuds/just_another_classic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Killian and Belle read Harry Potter for the first time, with Emma and Henry joining in on the fun. (Set during the six weeks of peace between 4a & 4b)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Harry Potter Book Club

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thegladelf](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegladelf/gifts).



> For @thegladelf, who is terribly sick and requested a fic of Killian discovering Harry Potter. Feel better, dear!

He is a fool, or rather, he feels like one.  
  
As he stands outside the library, swaying awkwardly by the door, Killian silently curses himself for thinking this to be a good idea. He’s always been one for grand gestures, but he doubts the success of his plan, or if it will be well received. Besides, he’s doesn’t even know if she’s already read the bloody thing.

 

He sighs, and rights himself. There’s no use delaying this any longer.

 

She’s behind the circulation desk when he enters, and doesn’t even bother to glance up from whatever book she is perusing. He’s half a mind to warn her against lurking pirates, or at the very least to remind her to mind her surroundings, but he notices the rose of her skin and the tear tracks she’s not bothered to hide, and he thinks better of it. Instead, he makes a loud coughing sort of noise and pretends not to notice her wiping her cheeks with her sleeve.

 

“Belle,” he greets with an enthusiasm that feels out of place for the situation. Still, he soldiers on in hopes that he can improve her spirit.

 

“Oh, hello, Killian,” she replies back, and he can’t help but smile at how she says his name. She’s one of the few, besides Emma, that really uses it. He rarely minds the use of his more colorful moniker, but there’s something more human about being referred to by his actual name. It makes him feel less of villain, especially when Belle uses it. Considering all the wrongs he’s committed against her in the past, it’s honestly a surprise she’s working to forgive him. “I think I might have a lead on a way to free the fairies.”

 

“That’s good,” Killian says with a grimace. For the past few weeks, they’ve been researching ways to free the fairies from the hat he, under the control of the Crocodile, trapped them. While the guilt still gnaws at him, no one seems to particularly blame him, which almost makes the situation worse. However, Killian has resolved to save them, one of the many messes he’s made that he wants so desperately to rectify. His relationship with Belle is another one of those things.

 

“I’ve brought you something.”

 

Belle looks up at that, confusion written across her face as if she’s shocked he would bring her something. She masks it quickly though, and puts on a teasing smile, “Please tell me you aren’t ferrying over food from Granny. I can only pretend to eat so many of her lasagnas, I’m afraid.”

 

“Ah, no,” Killian replies as he scratches the back of his head with his curved of his hook. Feeling as if he should get the whole thing over with, he shoves his gift, a book, in front of her.

 

He feels silly, and he doesn’t know what is about the women in this town that make him feels so unsteady on his feet. Belle’s eyes go wide as takes in the tome, he fingers tracing over the spine and its edges.

 

“You’ve brought me Harry Potter.”

 

“Aye,” he replies. ““I’m not sure if you’ve read it, but both Emma and Henry swear by it. It’s about a magic school, I believe.”

 

“I haven’t actually read it, but I’ve wanted to,” Belle says, a soft smile on her face that makes Killian feel a surge of something like victory. “I truly appreciate it, Killian.”

 

“You’ll have to let me know how you like it,” he says, still recovering from the surprise of her hug, his cheeks no doubt warm with a flush.

 

“You haven’t read it?”

 

“Not as such, no.”

 

“Well, then we can read it together, like a book club,” Belle announces as if it the most obvious thing in the world. Killian doesn’t know what a book club is exactly, but Belle seems fond of the idea, and it sounds like something friends would do together. If he has any further questions, he can simply ask Emma. “This is going to be so much fun.”

 

Belle smiles, truly smiles in such a way that Killian hasn’t seen since the she banished the Crocodile over the town line just over two weeks ago. She then does something he could never expect.

 

She hugs him. It's odd hugging a woman he once tried to kill, and he’s sure it’s a peculiar sight with him standing stock-still. The only other person who’s gotten this physically close with him is Emma, and that’s a completely different sort of relationship. It’s strange, this friendliness, but he doesn’t mind it.

 

Perhaps it means Belle will see him as a man of honor one day, and perhaps, there more magic to this book than simply the school.

 

Killian is eager to find out.

 

-/-

 

“So what do you think?” Emma asks him one evening as she reclines on his bed, his copy of _Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone_ in hand. She’s eager to hear his opinion, her green eyes alight in excitement as she waits for him to answer.

 

“I can see why you think so highly of it,” he replies evenly in an attempt to choose his words carefully.

 

He’s being truthful in that he can understand why Emma is so fond of this book. The main character, Harry, is an orphan who gets swept away to magical land, and seemingly finds his home. He can imagine a younger Emma reading Harry’s story, wishing that she could also be whisked away to Hogwarts, and it makes his heart ache to think of the pain she’s endured.

 

He wants to tell her how much he understands her longing to have a home, how he’s glad she’s finally found it, magic powers and all. But he doesn’t, or at least tries not to, because he’s worried that it would be an admittance she’s not quite ready far, her walls far too steep to really delve into her past.

 

“I told you it was good,” Emma says in victory, throwing her arms in the air making the shirt (his shirt) she’s wearing ride up her hips. He crawls up next to her, eager to reveal more of her creamy skin, and pulls her into a deep kiss that she enthusiastically returns.

 

Later, as they lay sated and sleepy in bed, Emma rolls into him, resting her head on his chest. “Hey, Killian?”

 

“Hm?”

 

“I’m glad you’ve started reading Harry Potter.”

 

-/-

 

“Do you think Dumbledore really saw a pair of socks in the mirror?”

  
Killian looks up from the book he was reading on magical portals, surprised at Belle’s seemingly random question. Belle’s last lead on saving the fairies went nowhere, leaving them once again at a loss. They’d been doubling down with books from the Crocodile’s shop, but it seems over the course of the morning her mind has wandered.

 

“Come again, love?”

 

“It seems strange that his deepest desire is a pair of socks.” Belle replies with a shrug. Killian wonders if she’s thinking about the Crocodile, and how he’s never seemed satisfied with anything so simple, always wanting more. “Do you think he was lying to Harry?”

 

 

“Perhaps.”

 

To be honest, he hardly gave Dumbledore’s answer much thought when he first read through. He’d been more preoccupied with Harry’s vision of his family. Since reading that chapter, Killian had been thinking about just what he’d see in the Mirror of Erised. He thinks his vision would be something similar to Harry’s.

 

Liam would be alive, that much is for sure. Milah, as well. Baelfire, too, would no longer be dead, but alive and happy and raising his son. And Emma – Killian knows Emma would still be in his arms, not Bae’s. It feels like a betrayal to Milah’s memory to think that way, but Killians knows Emma is future, and he wants so desperately for her to believe it, too.

 

Belle doesn’t push him any further, and settles back into her book. He’s thankful that she doesn’t inquire what he might see in the mirror, because he knows his answer would result in a lie. Then again, he doesn’t ask her either, and perhaps she feels the same.

 

-/-

 

When they finish the book, they head to Granny’s to celebrate and discuss the ending. Henry joins them, excited to hear their thoughts on one of his favorite books. Emma is at the station, and Killian knows she wants to hear his final opinion, if only because she texts him as such. (He is really quite fond of these talking phones and their many methods of communication.)

 

“So what house do you think you guys are in?” Henry asks as he steals a fry off of Killian’s plate.

 

“Probably Ravenclaw or Gryffindor, but I would love to be in Gryffindor,” Belle answers. It’s obvious she’s given this a bit of thought judging by the speed of her answer.

“Like Hermione,” Henry replies with a grin. He dips one of his stolen fries into his milkshake, and Killian furrows his brows in confusion. Sometimes he doubts he will ever understand the delicacies of this realm.

 

Belle nods and laughs. “She’s right, though, there is more to life than books and cleverness. Besides, she proves that you can love books and also be courageous.”

 

Killian stays quiet as both Belle and Henry discuss the character of Hermione. While Hermione Granger is a fine character, his mind is still stuck on the previous topic of conversation. He didn’t give too much thought to the houses, and truthfully didn’t know much about them outside of the poem and other character’s opinions. Gryffindor, he presumes, was home to heroes. Ravenclaw, the scholars. Slytherin, the villains…and, well, he hardly knew what the hell a Hufflepuff even was, except for the fact that house sounded bland.

 

Both Ravenclaw and Gryffindor would be fine options for Belle. She’s fiercely courageous and quite clever. In fact, Hermione reminds him a bit of Belle, so he can understand how she sees the character as a kindred spirit. Killian would most certainly place Emma in Gryffindor, and David there, as well. As for himself, he hardly knew, though he had the sinking feeling he’d be placed among the villains in Slytherin.

 

“What are you, Hook?” Henry asks, and Killian flushes at the inquiry.

 

“I hardly know, lad,” he lies. If Belle and Henry see through it, they don’t say. Instead, they exchange conspiratorial glances, and at the same time declare a single word, much like the Sorting Hat, itself:

 

“Hufflepuff!”

 

-/-

 

That night, as he lays in his bed at the inn with Emma curled to his side, he tells of Henry and Belle’s pronouncement. Unlike him, she doesn’t seem surprised or indignant. Instead, she looks at him as if suddenly everything in the world makes sense.

 

“Of course you are,” she tells him, rolling to her so they can lay face-to-face. She reaches out and strokes his cheek. “I couldn’t see you as anything else.”  
  
“You wouldn’t place me in Slytherin?” he asks, suddenly shy and unsure of himself. This conversation makes him think more on his past misdeeds than he would prefer, and again he feels like a fool, because he shouldn’t feel so conflicted over a fictional story, yet, somehow, he is.

 

“You are in no way a Slytherin,” Emma answers with a laugh, scrunching up her nose in distaste. “You have none of the qualities of a Slytherin.”

 

“But I’m a villain,” he attempts to argue, but Emma places her finger on his lips to quiet him.

 

“Okay, for one, not everyone in Slytherin is a villain,” Emma tells him sternly. She continues, “Second of all, you were a villain. Past tense, as in not anymore.”

 

“But – “

 

“No buts, Mister,” Emma insists. Cheekily, he swats at her ass, which ears another half-hearted glare. “Besides, even in your more dastardly pirate days, you were a total Hufflepuff.”

 

“Oh?” He asks, because he’s genuinely interested to learn her opinion.

 

“Yeah, Hufflepuffs are loyal and patient. And, yeah, you were a pirate saying ‘fuck it’ to the king, but you were only doing it out of loyalty to Liam. And your whole three million year revenge quest was both a sign of patience, but also deep devotion to Milah. The way I see it, you’re a total Hufflepuff, and I wouldn’t have you any other way.”

 

Killian feels the three words he so desperately wants to say on the tip of his tongue, but he holds back, if only because he knows she isn’t ready yet. Hufflepuffs are patient, or so Emma says, so he’s willing to wait until she says it. Instead, he takes her hand in his and presses a gentle kiss to her knuckles, his heart swelling in awe that this amazing woman thinks so highly of him.

 

“Oh, yeah, and Hufflepuffs are partially good finders,” Emma adds, her tone taking a teasing quality, “and a pirate always finds his treasure.”

 

He laughs, a deep rumble in his chest that also makes Emma giggle. “You’re correct, Swan.”

 

“Always,” she replies with a grin, and Killian can’t help but feel as if he’s missed something in the conversation. Instead, he contents himself by pulling Emma closer, and savoring the preciousness of having her in arms.


End file.
